A rainy day can do this; when the sun is out and there is a gentle breeze, well, anything is possible. I ran out of 'oomph' by evening time so this post is delayed 24 hours.
James the tree-man and his teenager son (filling in time and earning a bit of cash in the holidays) came to deal with The Sleeping Beauty's Forest in the morning, and worked on in spite of rain, drizzle, mizzle, stair-rods and even occasionally in the dry moments. He has all the tools, including 'Nessie', a chipping machine that he can steer into the garden like a giant powered rollator running on tracks, not wheels.
It didn't take long before that end of the garden was buried knee deep in bits of hedge and tree and shrub.
He's cut the hedge to the level you can see on the left, leaving it untamed behind, what we call 'down the back' as beyond our boundary fence the ground slopes steeply down for about 6 feet to the footpath/cycle track and the woodland. This is to give us some privacy from continuous stream of people all enjoying this lovely area.
Goodness! I hadn't really taken in how HUGE the oak at the bottom of the garden has grown!
While he was working on the hedge it did a good job of sheltering him from the worst of the weather. He has 'lifted the canopy' of the tree, being very selective about cutting all or part of the lower branches overhanging our garden, so that there is clear air between the apple tree and the oak, and also letting a lot more light through to next door's garden. I will take a picture tomorrow, because morning sunshine is the best time to show the improvement.
The previous occupant of the house on the left of this picture was keen to have the tree cut down completely; he was an enthusiastic astronomer, and his highly technical and computerised telescope, housed in a special observatory with a sliding roof at the bottom of his garden relied on getting its bearings from the North Star. Unfortunately within a coupe of years of installing all this equipment the tree had grown sufficiently to obscure the star... He's moved to somewhere miles away, with no light or air pollution, no large towns, no airport, and a clear view to the North, and the new neighbours have turned the observatory into a shed, covered in grape vines and surrounded by 10 foot tall sunflowers. He has VERY green fingers!
'I love work, I can watch it for hours,' remarks one of the young men in 'Three Men in a Boat'. Me too, but watching all that activity for nearly a whole day tired me out!
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